SMC unit plans tender offer for remaining Holcim shares

San Miguel Corp.’s First Stronghold Cement Industries Inc. (FSCII) will conduct a tender offer for all remaining and issued common shares of Holcim Philippines.

This is equivalent to 920.5 million common shares of Holcim, representing approximately 14.27 percent of the cement firm’s total outstanding capital stock.

FSCII entered into a deal to acquire 5.53 billion shares, representing approximately 85.73 percent of Holcim’s total oustanding capital stock.

The acquisition of HPI shares by FSCII is subject to the mandatory tender offer provisions of Section 19 of the Securities Regulation Code.

SMC said the tender offer is conditioned on the approval of the Philippine Competition Commission.

Holcim inaugurated on Sept. 11 new storage and loading facilities that improve the ability of its plant in Norzagaray, Bulacan to serve customers.

These will improve the plant’s storage capacity and speed up packing and loading of products on trucks so it can serve more customers faster.

The Norzagaray plant primarily serves the National Capital Region and Central Luzon where construction industries grew by doubledigits in 2018, government data showed.

Started in January 2018, the new Bulacan facilities are part of Holcim Philippines’ investments to debottleneck operations in response to the steady growth in cement demand from driven by rising construction activity.

The company also inaugurated in March and August, respectively, new facilities in its Bacnotan, La Union and Davao City plants.

“This is the third site we are holding inauguration activities this year as our company continues investments to strengthen our ability to support our customers nationwide. This is part of our greater commitment to provide a reliable supply of cement especially at this time of strong construction activity, which we will continue to meet to contribute to building a better future for the Philippines,” Holcim Philippines president and chief executive officer John Stull said.

Holcim has cement manufacturing facilities in La Union, Bulacan, Batangas, Misamis Oriental and Davao, as well as aggregates and dry mix business and technical support facilities for building solutions.